10-26 May
Become a FriendHoipolloi
The Ladder
Shôn Dale-Jones Presents Hugh Hughes
Friday 17 & Saturday 18 May, 7.30pm
World Premiere
The popular and multiple award-winning Welsh emerging artist, Hugh Hughes (FLOATING, STORY OF A RABBIT, STORIES FROM AN INVISIBLE TOWN), returns after six years, bringing his father back to life in this uplifting and heart-warming new show, THE LADDER.
Hugh has become increasingly close to his father since he died. In THE LADDER, Hugh works with his dead father to stage the story of his life. In this renewed relationship, there is so much more room for getting to know each other. As father and son reunite, they open up about their feelings of vulnerability. Creating a new, stronger and closer bond, Hugh and his father celebrate their friendship, 18 years after his father’s death.
Following hits THE DUKE and ME & ROBIN HOOD, THE LADDER is the third and final show in The Loose Change Trilogy about our need to empathise more with one another and to recognise the need to support those with less than ourselves. It’s a wonderfully heartwarming and hopeful story about accepting our vulnerability and learning to share what scares us the most.
Hoipolloi is delighted to be premiering THE LADDER at Norfolk & Norwich Festival, the city where it all began for the company back in 1994.
‘Shon Dale-Jones manages to captivate the audience from start to finish’ – The Outlier on ME AND ROBIN HOOD
**** ‘Hugh Hughes is a mesmerising personality… It’s an extraordinary sight, hilarious yet touching in the human fragility it conveys… brilliantly effective in its simplicity.’ – The Guardian on FLOATING
**** ‘This is heartfelt and insightful stuff that has great power to move. Highly recommended.’ Evening Standard on STORY OF A RABBIT
Important information
Duration: c. 1 hour 15 minutes
To celebrate award-winning Hoipolloi’s 25th anniversary we are proud to present a trilogy of story-telling shows.
See them separately or buy a joint ticket for all three shows on Saturday 18 May for £30.
25 Years of Hoipolloi
Based in Cambridge, UK, Hoipolloi was established in 1994 by Shôn Dale-Jones and Stefanie Mueller. Over the last twenty-five years the company have made over twenty new and original award-winning theatre and comedy shows, produced online digital work, recorded various radio plays with Radio 4 and made a variety of films. Hoipolloi have worked with various partners, including the BBC; National Theatre Wales; National Theatre Studios; Barbican; Royal Court; Carriageworks, Sydney; Cambridge Film Festival; Arts Council England, The British Council.
Hoipolloi has toured all over the UK and around the world, including the Barbican, Royal Court, Roundhouse, BAC, Unicorn, Soho Theatre, Young Vic and Royal Opera House in London; nationally (including Liverpool, Everyman; Cambridge Junction; New Wolsey, Ipswich; West Yorkshire Playhouse; Northern Stage; Theatre Royal, Plymouth; Brighton Festival); the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (Assembly Rooms, Traverse Theatre, Pleasance) and internationally to Australia, Singapore, Colombia, Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, Norway, France, Belgium, Holland, Finland, Russia, Ireland, Canada, South Africa and the USA.
Hoipolloi has won several awards, including, two Scotsman’s Fringe First Awards, Total Theatre Award, Mie Award – Best Live Theatre Event, Melbourne, Australia and BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Scripted Comedy.
Our mission is to tell stories that weave the personal with the political, mixing fantasy and reality, making people laugh and imagine and connect with people living different lives from our own. Hoipolloi is dedicated to making new work and connecting with audiences nationally and internationally by sharing original comic stories, mixing fantasy and reality, making people laugh, cry and imagine.
As Bunuel says, “reality and fantasy are equally important and equally felt and so their confusion is a matter of only relative importance.”
Hoipolloi is a flexible and agile independent creative company making work on stage, on radio, on screen and online. The company produces the work of Artistic Director, Shôn Dale-Jones, changing shape and size according to the scale and needs of each project.
Tickets
Joint ticket offer: Book tickets to all three Hoipolloi performances on Saturday 18 May for £30. Joint discounts are available by phone or in person only. Concessions not available on joint discounts.
Select a performance
Friday
17 May
07:30 pm
£0.00
Saturday
18 May
07:30 pm
£0.00
Commissioned by Norfolk & Norwich Festival, in association with Theatre Royal Plymouth & Cambridge Junction.
Masthead image: © Finn Morrel